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The task of a weekly content provider is not
easy. Man, I hate that term content provider. Anyway, last
week's column didn't contain all its content 'cause I screwed
up. No headline and two missing images. So my apologies to
DriveSavers and to Tommy my webmaster, who did a masterful job
of recovering on day two.
Still, several people did read the column
including one who had just lost her data in a hard drive crash.
I hope she's contacted DriveSavers by now.
And a shot of the $199 PrimeFilm slide scanner
appears at the bottom of this column.
We Mac users in Florida are a strange lot. Just
after receiving some email on the DriveSavers column, my G4
suffered a system crash. After spending the weekend reinstalling
my system, I discovered that whatever was causing Photoshop to
slow down upon opening files (mentioned about two months ago),
was solved by the new system.
And my friend Ken Deffenbach couldn't stand to
part with his ancient SE30 so he converted it to a less
practical use. I made a shot of the SE30 Mailbox over Memorial
Day weekend, even imported a letter carrier from South Beach
(via Photoshop) to model with it. Ken's mailbox changes its
screen saver with the seasons. Beats making a lamp or fishbowl
or container for left-over chads.
Three items in the June issue of Popular
Photography brought smiles. I thought I'd share my reactions
with you.
Ever since Oscar Barnack ran the first strip of
movie film through his prototype Leica in the 1920's (did you
know that the Barnack's invention was intended as a light meter
for motion picture work?), grain has been a challenge for 35mm
photographers.
Sunpak, that reputable marketer of excellent
strobes and other accessories, has now decided that grain is
extinct and has done something about it! For $29.95, the 35mm
photographer can now acquire Sunpak's pair of "Smartlens
Prograin" filters to add grain to photos. Further, these filters
fit inside the camera in the film gate in front of the film.
Sunpak's ad on Pop Photo's page 7 babbles on
about the creative qualities of grain and says "that's no longer
possible, except by time-consuming manipulation in the
computer."
So digital photographers and Photoshop users
rejoice, grain is no longer an annoyance, it's a stylish
expression of creativity. Under Filter>Noise>Add Noise, get
creative. A monochromatic Gaussian grain of 14.7 will add the
creativity of 1957 overexposed Tri-X souped in hot Dektol
similar to my shot above of a motorcycling Bangkok family.
In my report from Orlando's PMA, I mentioned the
wave of tiny digital cameras cresting these shores from Japan.
Now, in a Pop Photo double-truck ad on page 28, Concord
announces its "revolutionary" eyeQ Go! and eyeQ 3X digital
cameras.
Concord is a respected maker of private label single-use film
cameras and its ad agency evidently isn't too used to creating
retail ads. There's no point of contact (address, phone or
email) and the copy is pretty vague (perhaps edited with a film
plane grain filter).
Since these cameras don't use removable storage
– "no expensive 'digital film' cards needed" – and record in VGA
resolution, "a USB card for ultrafast downloading to your
computer" is an important bit of technical copy in this pool of
hyperbole.
I did find Concord on the Web through a Google
search and a press release stating the EyeQ Go! would cost about
$129. Since the model in the ad looks so incredibly tickled to
hold the purple and white Go!, perhaps the photographer told her
it was an antique transistor radio.
And departing from the silliness sector, here's
some really useful information for digital photographers. If you
use one of those "expensive digital film cards," it deserves
more protection than a shirt pocket or rattling amongst the lint
in the bottom of a gadget bag.
Hakuba, distributor of Velbon tripods and other
fine accessories, now has a line of products for protecting
portable media. Of interest to me is the Batt Pack, a $3.99 case
to carry CF or SM cards and a quartet of AA size batteries.
The company also sells a $14.99 brushed aluminum
card carrier for a variety of card formats. Pretty neat and
needed stuff at affordable prices. Contact Hakuba at
http://www.hakubausa.com
or call 800-423-1623.
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